Southwest joins other U.S. airlines in ticket price hike

DALLAS – Southwest Airlines Co. has joined a sweeping increase of $10 in the price of many domestic round-trip airfares, citing the need to offset high fuel prices.

Southwest’s action over the weekend may have ensured success for a price hike by major airlines that seemed to be faltering. Southwest carries more U.S. passengers than any other airline and wields great influence over prices.

It’s the sixth time airlines have raised fares already this year. FareCompare.com CEO Rick Seaney says leisure travelers may now have to pay $260 for a ticket that cost $200 back on Jan. 1.

Jet fuel prices have risen more than 50 percent in the past year to more than $3 a gallon, although most airlines have offset some of the increase through hedging – in effect, paying extra to lock in the top price they’ll pay for some of their fuel.

The latest price increase started early last week. Delta Air Lines Co. tried to raise many fares by up to $20 per round trip, but other big airlines sided with a $10 increase started by AMR Corp.’s American Airlines.

Low-cost airlines JetBlue, AirTran and Virgin America also raised prices, virtually assuring that the increase will become permanent, he said.

Some airlines have also been dialing back 2011 growth plans because of high oil prices. Frontier Airlines became the latest to do that on Monday. Frontier said its second-quarter capacity would be flat, rather than a planned increase of 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent.

Delta and American have also said they will scale back their capacity growth plans this year.